Escapade 2012 Sedalia, Missouri

This is our fourth time at an Escapade. And, our first one was also in Sedalia. It’s the smallest of what we consider the 3 big rallies where we do our seminars (FMCA, Good Sam, Escapees) and we started attending it last. Our first Escapade was in 2009, whereas we’ve been at every FMCA convention since 2005! We feel very at home with Escapees, I don’t know why it took us so long to discover it. The Escapees club was originally formed for the purpose of educating people about the fulltime lifestyle. So, when we come to these rallies, we’re amongst more fulltime RVers than anywhere else.

And, they like our seminars! We started with our hands-on ‘Camp Reboot.’ In other venues we call it our Computer Boot Camp, but at the Escapade we teach that class at the same time that the well-known RV Boot Camp is being taught, so we changed our class name a little. We really like teaching this class here because they schedule it for a full 12 hours, starting Friday afternoon, going all day Saturday, then ending Sunday mid-day. Hands-on classes like this need time.

Jim and Chris helping ‘Camp Reboot’ students during the exercise portion of class

Most of the week was devoted to our regular demo-style of seminars. We taught ‘Managing your Pictures with Picasa’, ‘Smartphone Overview’, ‘Facebook Overview’, ‘Photo Sharing Online’, ‘Making Collages with Picasa’, and ‘Trip Planning and GPS Navigation.’

Our Picasa Class at the Escapade

For our Smartphone class, we teamed up with Phil May from TechnoRV

With Phil demonstrating features of the iPhone, we felt like we were bringing a little of our Techno-Geek Learning Rally to the Escapade. Notice how the iPad is being used as a camera aimed at the phone. The iPad is being projected. Using this system, it is easy for the presenter to see what the audience is seeing.

Here’s how it looks to the audience.

Here’s how the audience looked to us! A nice crowd.

Our Facebook Class at the Escapade

When we weren’t teaching, we were in a booth along with Phil and Tracey from TechnoRV. This is the first Techno-Geek booth! All totaled, we gained 53 either new or renewed members for Geeks on Tour this week.

And, when the week was over, we added another hands-on class for a select few people who wanted to learn more about using their Android smart phones.

Here’s Nancy demonstrating her method of protecting her new Samsung Galaxy with a sock! John said he joined the class because he heard there would be phone sox!

Learning about the various camera settings on their Android phones during our hands-on Smartphone Boot Camp.

That was a busy and wonderful 8 days! Oh, by the way, we have scheduled our next Techno-Geek Learning Rally for December 2-8 in Bushnell, Florida and it is open for registration. Here’s the page for all the details.